I hate Internet outages about as much as power outages without a deck of cards, but even worse is when that one Internet service you rely on is unavailable. You can check the scores at TSN and you can get the weather, but Twitter is down… again.
I haven’t been on Twitter for nearly as long as some and I have to admit the outages and slow server response is really starting to bother me. I have to stop and wonder why Twitter users are sticking around? Is it loyalty to the brand? Are they worried they will have to remake their contact/follow list elsewhere?
Abby over at Whynaut recently put up a post Twitter Feeling Less Chirpy: The Migration is Well Underway? and I felt like getting a thought out here. Before finding Twitter I thought only hardcore open source users were this loyal to something that only worked half the time. At least people in open source communities can participate. It seems Twitter users are forced to sit on the sidelines and talk on Friendfeed while the service comes back up.
So is the next service Pownce? Plurk? Pop? Personification? How much more can Twitter users take before they officially bail on this product?
I wonder how many users will actually get on Jaiku once it comes back out of closed beta? With Google being a key player now at Jaiku it may be what everyone is actually looking for. I sometimes use Google Documents because I am a Gmail user. I sometimes use Google Reader because I am a Gmail user. I sometimes use Google Calendar because I am a Gmail user. Will I use Jaiku because I am a Gmail user? Time may tell, but at least at this moment Google is far more reliable than Twitter.
Mike
Great post!
Thank you so much for the thoughtful shout out!
I think you are right about Jaiku- it will have a definite advantage being a Google-related product as right now, they are sort of the only major, established web player you can trust: Yahoo is in chaos (though maybe the realignment will help) and Microsoft just lost Gates to retirement. (Though FriendFeed is run by ex-Googlers- does that count?)
Please keep your readers updated- let us know what you think of Plurk and Pownce. And Jaiku too. (Another series in the offing? Mike B. on microblogging?)
Do we have any idea when it might come out of beta? Because you now have me even more curious about it!
AM
I am not sure when it is opening back up for sign ups, but I know you can ‘request’ to join. I think it is under the FAQ.
I used Twitter approximately three times. Not for me. It’s not that I can’t write concisely, but I do like to think about everything I write. Sometimes a tool is so counter-intuitive to one’s own style and method of writing, that it’s best to jettison it.
See you in the tweet hereafter!